5 p.m. UPDATE: With the rapidly strengthening Hurricane Harvey bearing down on the Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center ominously warned residents that preparations “should be rushed to completion.”

Projections show it weakening before it makes landfall, but at the very least, forecasters said, Harvey would bring a “life threatening” storm surge and “devastating” freshwater flooding.

The hurricane center also warned that a combination of storm surge and tides will bring rising waters inland, rising to 3 to 8 feet in parts of coastal Texas and Louisiana, and as much as 12 feet near Texas’ Padre Island National Seashore.

The hurricane center has issued tropical storm, hurricane and storm surge watches and warnings for parts of Texas and northeastern Mexico. It said ominously that preparations

At 5 p.m., the storm was about 300 miles southeast of Corpus Christi and about the same distance south-southeast of Port O’Connor. It was moving north-northwest at 10 mph.

UPDATE 2pm:

Harvey, a storm that had fizzled, came back Thursday as a full-fledged hurricane, the third of the season, and threatened the Gulf Coast.

The National Hurricane Center said in a 1 p.m. advisory that a Hurricane Hunter plane that flew into the storm reported it had top winds of 80 mph.

The hurricane center had said in an earlier advisory that Harvey was “quickly strengthening and forecast to be a major hurricane when it approaches the middle Texas coast,” the National Hurricane Center said in an 11 a.m. bulletin. A “major” hurricane is one of at least Category 3 on the 1-5 Saffir-Simpson Scale, with top sustained winds of at least 111 mph.

At 1 p.m., Hurricane Harvey was about 340 miles southeast of Corpus Christi and about the same distance south-southeast of Port O’Connor, Texas. It was moving west at 10 mph.

Harvey was expected to turn west and slow down, and make landfall in Texas Friday night or early Saturday, then stall all weekend, dropping rains across the area of 12 to 20 inches, perhaps even 30 inches in spots.

Projections show it weakening before it makes landfall, but at the very least, forecasters said, Harvey would bring a “life threatening” storm surge and freshwater flooding.

The hurricane center has issued tropical storm, hurricane and storm surge watches and warnings for parts of Texas and northeastern Mexico.